Hey Herbal Turtle members! It's been a cold, wet spring but the produce is looking great! Fortunately we have well drained soil and have not lost any crops to root rot (knock on wood). While we are about 2 weeks past our targeted start date, we are very happy with the quantity and quality of the produce and feel that it was well worth the wait!
We have a lot of new developments on the farm this season. Our new walk in cooler is up and operational. We are building a garden "shed", more of a tiny barn really :), complete with composting toilets! Don't worry... the compost from these toilets will NOT be going on the veggie fields. We also have some new crops we are experimenting with including artichokes, celery, and sweet corn.
WHAT'S IN YOUR BOX THIS WEEK
Arugula - cooked or raw (spicy green)
Red Russian Kale - cooked or raw
Valentine's Day Radishes - cooked or raw
Garlic Scapes -raw or cooked, use just like garlic
Spinach - cooked or raw
Herb Mix: Chives, Oregano, Mint
Everything in your box this week should be stored in the fridge. The greens will keep best if they are left in the bag. You may notice some tiny holes in the kale and arugula... we can thank our little flea beetle friends for that. Since we don't use any chemicals on the farm, we sometimes have to accept minor blemishes on our produce. We promise it will still taste great and your body will appreciate all the good nutrients! We have had a lot of hard rain lately and although we have washed (and in some cases triple washed) the greens you should also give them a soak and a spin in a salad spinner when you are ready to use them. If you don't have a salad spinner we highly recommend picking one up! It will make washing greens a piece of cake.
Also, we realize we used a lot of plastic in this box! We are really trying to figure out ways to reduce our plastic bag use but your greens will keep much longer in a plastic bag. As we get into some summer crops our plastic use will go down significantly. We are open to ideas if anyone has a few!
We ask our shareholders to take good care of their boxes and to please return them every week. We will post a video on this blog detailing how to break down your box so that it doesn't get too torn up. Each drop site will have an area for members to return boxes so please bring your broken down box with you and exchange it each time you pick up your new box.
The pick-up sites and times are:
Winona - Bluff Country Coop, Noon - 8pm
Trempealeau - You know what's up!
La Crosse - Riverside Wellness Center, 11am-4:30pm (boxes will be placed in the hallway after 4:30pm)
Rochester- People's Food Coop (formerly the good food store), 8am-9pm
Some of these sites have a very long pick-up window. We've said it a few times now but please keep in mind that the longer your box sits at the pick-up site the more things will wilt. There is no refrigeration at any of the sites.
Thanks again for all of your support! We are working on building a sustainable local food system and you are making it happen! We're looking forward to an AWESOME season.
Your Farmer's,
Bryan Crigler and Katelyn Foerster
Herbal Turtle Farms
RECIPES WE THOUGHT YOU WOULD ENJOY:
Open Faced Grilled Cheese with Arugula:
Minnesota's Bounty
1 baguette, split lengthwise and lightly toasted
8 oz thinly slice mild cheddar, Colby, or Manchego cheese
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
A few handfuls of arugula
salt and freshly ground pepper
Lay the cheese over the baguette and place it under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned, about 2-3 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar, oil, mustard and honey. Toss the arugula with just enough dressing to lightly coat it, and season it with salt and pepper.
Top the grilled cheese with the dressed greens just before serving.
Kale Salad with Cherries and Pecans
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Salad:
1/2 cup pecans
8 oz kale
4 radishes
1/2 cup dried cherries
2 oz of soft goat cheese, chilled
Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toast pecans in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees, stirring once or twice to make sure they toast evenly.
Wash your kale and let it dry on towels. Then, with a knife, remove ribs from each stalk, leaving long strips of kale leaves. Stack the leaves in small batches, roll them tightly the long way, and cut the roll crosswise into thin ribbons. Add the kale ribbons to a large salad bowl.
Thinly slice the radishes, and add them to the bowl. Coarsely chop the pecans and cherries, and add them as well. Crumble the goat cheese over the top. Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small dish and pour over the salad. Toss until evenly coated. This salad is great to eat right away but even better after 20 minutes of tenderizing in the dressing.
Radish Salad
A Girl and Her Pig
1/2 pound of radishes, topped, tailed, cut into large bite sized pieces and chilled
A small handful of mint leaves
Sea Salt
1 1/2 oz chunk of Parmesan, cut into slices, some thick and some thin
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
a small handful of arugula
Just before you'd like to serve the salad, combine the radishes, mint, and 2 healthy pinches of salt in a bowl. Grab a handful of the mixture at a time and smoosh the mint against the radishes for about 30 seconds. Add the cheese and go at the radishes again until some of the cheese goes creamy, some is in little chunks and some is still in larger dime sized chunks.
Add the lemon juice and olive oil and toss well. Give it a taste, adjust salt if necessary. Maybe some more lemon too, but keep in mind that although you want the salad to taste acidic and bright, the lemon shouldn't dominate. Add the arugula and toss gently but thoroughly.
Herb and Honey Dressing
Forgotten Skills of Cooking
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp mixed herbs e.g parsley, mint, chives, oregano, thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper
Put all the dressing ingredients into a screw top jar, adding salt and pepper to taste. Shake well to emulsify before use; otherwise, blend all the ingredients together in a food processor or blender for a few seconds. As a variation, you could use 4 tbsp fresh lemons juice or wine vinegar instead of the cider vinegar.
Not only does your edamame make a great snack, it has also been working hard to fix nitrogen back into our soil. That's one busy little plant! In the picture you will notice a bunch of tiny ball-looking things on the roots of the plant. Those are actually nodules formed by a bacteria called rhizobium. The rhizobium invades the root and multiplies with in the cells. It is actually the bacteria that fixes the nitrogen but only with the help of a legume (soy, peas, alfalfa, etc.). Fascinating relationships beneath the soil! 
Cabbage
We have all installed intravenous saline drips on our bodies
to keep from getting dehydrated this week.
No we actually didn’t do that… But we have changed our working hours to
the EARLY morning and have been paying extra attention to the amount of WATER we
all drink. It doesn’t take much to work
up a good sweat in this heat. The heat
loving plants are not complaining though!
Eggplant, tomatoes and peppers are thriving and we will load you up with
them while the getting is good. 
The cabbage worms have been prolific in the broccoli this
year. They are the little green
caterpillar looking things in the picture.
We always hydro-cool the broccoli (meaning we pick it and immediately
put it into a cooler full of cold water) to help it keep crisp and also to get
rid of any bugs living inside the heads.
We also bang it out and this year have even gone through each head with
tweezers and picked out any cabbage worms we could see. It’s just part of organic farming. We recommend that you make sure you cut the
broccoli up before cooking it and if you want to be really sure you don’t get
any bugs in your dinner you can soak the broccoli in some cold salt water
before cooking. 
Caprese Salad
The weed war is going well. As you can see from the picture, the battles are gruesome and not for the faint of heart. Luckily, this ain't our first time at the rodeo!! Our crops are still looking great and although we did get some hail last night they don't seem any worse for the wear. The rain was certainly welcomed! It will be a help with mushroom production which has been down this season. We should finally be able to get to the Winona and Rochester farmer's markets! 
You will notice that we included a very large zucchini in your box this week... We have had requests from a few members for a round of larger zucchinis for baking breads, cookies, etc. Let us know if you are interested in receiving more large zucchini and we will try to include some in your next box! If you're not the baking type you can still cook the large zucchini like the smaller ones. Just cut out the seeds and slice into smaller pieces prior to cooking. 
This week is like a weird warp zone between the early season and the summer crops and the dip in temperatures has slowed our eggplant, tomatoes and peppers just a bit. They are still looking great though and we are well positioned for some outstanding summer crops. Since we have a smaller box this week, Katelyn and I have been foraging in the forest for some special treats for you all! 
We are hoping to include some baby carrots and fresh garlic next week! Everything in the field is looking fantastic-the tomatoes started to set fruit, the broccoli is heading, peppers and cucumbers are blooming, onions are forming fat bulbs and the garlic is getting ready to move to the barn to start curing. 
